Paul Keenan

Seventy-five per cent of Irish women believe abortion should be permitted in cases of incest or rape, but do not support the idea of abortion on demand, a new study has revealed .

The study, conducted as part of a project to record the views of women in 21st Century Ireland, polled 467 women, and 48 more in face to face interviews, towards answers on a wide range of issues, including religiosity, Church influence on the social status of women, the ordination of women, and moral issues (divorce and abortion) from the perspective of Catholic/Protestant women.

On abortion, the study found that ''women in this study were supportive of divorce and abortion in certain circumstances which indicates that attitudes towards abortion have become more permissive''.

In addition to the clear majority on the abortion issue, a similar percentage of both Catholics and Protestants responded in favour of women priests in their Churches.

Resist

According to the study: ''High religiosity amongst Protestant respondents was perhaps strengthened by the presence of female ministers in their churches. As Catholic women do not have such figures to look to, their slightly higher level of religiosity was surprising as their Church continues to resist ordination for women.''

Added to this, the study revealed that women consider themselves to be valued by their Churches at local level and ''Catholic respondents strongly believed that the presence of female saints in Catholic theology was indicative of church respect for women''.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic about the findings, Dr Florence Craven of the Social Attitude and Policy Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin who led the research said that ''while Catholic women were more critical of their Church they were certainly religious. Religiosity and personal faith were very important over the hierarchical Church''.

The results of the survey will be contained in Dr Craven's book, Twenty-First Century Ireland from a Woman's Perspective, published in April.